This invention relates generally to metal surface finishing and more particularly to an apparatus for microfinishing metal surfaces on various machine components such as the thrustwall of a crankshaft.
xe2x80x9cMicrofinishingxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cMicropolishingxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csuperfinishingxe2x80x9d, as it is known in the art, is a surface finishing process wherein a grinding means is brought to bear against a workpiece which has been previously rough ground. Microfinishing is a low velocity abrading process which generally follows rough grinding. Because microfinishing incorporates lower cutting speeds than grinding, heat and pressure variants may be minimized to provide improved size and geometry control. Those skilled in the art recognize that surface quality or roughness is measured in roughness average values (Ra) wherein Ra is the arithmetical average deviation of minute surface irregularities from hypothetical perfect surfaces. Microfinishing can provide surface quality of approximately 1 to 10 xcexcin. (0.025 to 0.25 xcexcm). Bearing or thrustwall surfaces of crankshafts, cam shafts, power transmission shafts in similar machine components that rotate on journal bearing surfaces generally require this surface finish for satisfactory operation.
Microfinishing processes are used in automotive applications in the manufacture, repair and rebuilding of internal combustion (IC) engines and well as original manufacturing, rework, rebuild and performance enhancement applications. Such engines not only require finely finished thrustwall area and bearing area surfaces for engine efficiency, but also for increased durability and longevity. In the initial manufacturing stage, crankshaft and camshaft bearing surfaces are microfinished to particular roughness specifications by previously mentioned, conventional mass production microfinishing machines.
In the repair or rebuilding stages, engine components such as crankshafts and cam shafts from faulty engines or older engines, are removed and reground to remove ten to thirty-thousandths of an inch of stock from the existing bearing surfaces. For thrustwall applications, the removal may be from 0.0001 to 0.005 inches and in some operations up to 0.20 inches off each wall. The bearing surfaces of these components are then polished or microfinished by placing the respective workpieces on a lathe and manually bringing a microfinishing material in contact with the rotating bearing surfaces. This microfinishing material is often a section of abrasive material mounted on a support correspondingly shaped to the bearing surface. It is generally recognized in the industry that these manual finishing operations are inadequate for achieving finished surfaces of standard quality.
Automotive repair and rebuilding operations microfinish very low volumes of engine components with respect to standard manufacturing operations. Special purpose crankshaft finishing machines such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 31,593 to Judge, Jr., reissued Jun. 5, 1984, are designed for low and medium volume workpiece production. These manufacturing machines are expensive and inappropriate for very low volume workpiece production or repair. Finishing machines of the type disclosed in the Judge, Jr. patent require programming of a computer controller for each different workpiece that requires finishing.
Automotive repair and rebuilding operations reclaim and refinish workpieces from hundreds of various internal combustion engines with different designs. Programmably controlling a finishing machine to accept each individual workpiece that requires microfinishing from different internal combustion engines is uneconomical and inefficient.
As discussed above, thrustwall surfaces also require a surface quality or surface finish equal to that of a bearing surface. As the thrustwall surface is found on opposing walls of the crankshaft body, it is typically relatively narrow. This area between the thrustwall surfaces, in common automotive engines is between 0.75 inches and 3.00 inches. The thrustwall surface polishing unit must be capable of insertion into this narrow area and function as a finishing tool. More specifically, pressure must be applied and released to the opposing thrustwall surfaces to allow for placement of the thrustwall surface polishing tool, polishing of the areas while rotations is occurring and removal of the thrustwall tool after polishing.
A thrustwall polishing unit must be able to quickly and consistently expand and retract over time. Further this expansion and contraction will occur every time a new part is polished. Prior art methods employ a metal springs or rubber o-rings to effectuate the retraction function for the thrustwall polishing unit. A reliable, long lasting retraction means is needed by the industry.
The thrustwall surface polishing assembly of the present invention has been developed to meet the need for an automatic or a manually controlled, low volume thrustwall microfinishing machine that is capable of achieving finished surfaces of consistent quality on selected surfaces. The thrustwall surface polishing assembly has the versatility to accept many various families of crankshafts and other workpieces needing thrustwall polishing without the need for programming of control sequences.
The present invention is also uniquely capable of serving as a manufacturing repair machine for correcting thrustwall surfaces on machine components previously microfinished by large, high volume microfinishing machines or as a very low volume microfinishing machine for automotive service repair and rebuilding operations.
The polishing assembly includes a polishing body. The polishing body is attached to a base which is movable with respect to the workpiece along the axis of rotation of the workpiece.
In operation, the polishing assembly has an indexing polishing tape which is manually indexable. This manual indexing affords accurate and rapid operation and also allows for the accommodation of many families of machine components. Automatic indexing is also accomplished with an automatic machine system. The microfinishing machine operates without the need for time-consuming and expensive pre-programming of numerical control systems needed to index and operate automotive microfinishing machines. Automatic indexing is also accomplished with an automatic machine system.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an improved thrustwall surface polishing machine including a surface polishing assembly that is inexpensive to manufacture and operate in medium and low volume production microfinishing processes.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a thrustwall surface polishing tool having an elongate body section, an actuating arm located adjacent the elongate body section, a first wedge connected to the first movable actuating arm, a second wedge, and a polishing shoe disposed adjacent to both the first and second wedges wherein a retraction of the actuating arm causes the polishing shoe to extend out away from the elongate body section and an extension of the actuating arm causes the polishing shoe to retract in toward the polishing body.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a thrustwall surface polishing tool capable of improving parallelism.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a thrustwall surface polishing tool for use with a power means for rotating a workpiece about an axis comprising an elongate body section having an inner cavity, an actuating arm located inside the elongate body section inner cavity, the actuating arm having a first extending key member and a second extending key member, a stationary arm located adjacent the actuating arm, a biasing means for moving the actuating arm from between an extended position to a retracted position, a first wedge connected to the actuating arm, a second wedge connected to the stationary arm, and a polishing shoe disposed adjacent both the first and second wedges, the polishing shoe having a first keyway for accepting the first key member and a second keyway for accepting the second key member wherein moving the actuating arm to the retracted position causes the polishing shoe to extend out away from the elongate body section to a polishing position and moving the actuating arm to an extended position causes first key member to engage the first keyway and the second key member to engage the second keyway thereby mechanically retracting the polishing shoe in toward the polishing body to a transfer position.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a thrustwall surface polishing tool including first and second polishing shoes disposed directly opposite each other and mechanically retractable without the use of xe2x80x98Oxe2x80x99 rings or springs.
The above objects and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best mode for carrying out the invention to be taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.